News in English     | 17.07.2019. 15:18 |

Wigemark hosts public debate in Čajniče

FENA Elma Geca

ČAJNIČE, July 17 (FENA) – The Head of the European Union Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative, Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark was host to the public debate on the challenges and possibilities that are offered by the process of EU accession, which was held today in Čajniče.

The gathering was also attended by the Dutch Ambassador to BiH Reinout Vos, the Ambassador of Slovakia to BiH Martin Kačo and other experts from the region.

The eighth public debate, which is organized by the EUSR Office in BiH, was held within the project “prEUzmi inicijativu” (Take the initiative) which is realized in local communities in BiH.

 “I take great pleasure in being in Čajniče today. That is part of the activities that the EU is implementing in local communities in the entire country, including canton levels and especially local municipalities, where we want to have direct dialogue with citizens. The European Commission has published its Opinion a month and a half ago on the application of BiH for EU membership and we think this is the best moment to have a discussion, what it means and what further steps to take,” Wigemark said.

He stressed that smaller communities in the RS have been in focus of their visits in order to stress their importance and to emphasize their specific issues and problems. According to Wigemark, they mostly don’t receive enough aid from higher levels of government, especially entity levels, and the situation is more or less the same in FBiH.

“The problems and issues in local municipalities in the greater part of the country are more or less the same, which is confirmed by studies done by the EU a year ago within the initiative for local authorities. This report also gave different recommendations and one of the most important issues is the redistribution of public funds which should be improved. It is clear there are not enough funds for all needs, but a more balanced approach should be the goal, which will also help with EU integration,” said the Head of the EU Delegation.

Wigemark added that the general principle in the EU is that local problems should be solved on a local level.

“There is a common misconception that the EU is some major centralization project where you will have Brussels or some other center making decisions for you. This is simply not the case. This country is extremely decentralized but that decentralization should bring stronger local self-governance and this has to be the case in both entities. Instead of this situation that you have, where entities are behaving like mini states in an attempt to centralize all the resources they have at entity levels. The ones most at loss because of such policies are local municipalities since those are places where citizens should be provided with services and they're not. That is why we want to directly hear the opinions of citizens,” said Wigemark.

(FENA) L. N.

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